I AM sure our hearts have been stirred, and our consciences too, by what has been brought before us as to the coming of the Lord; and I am sure not one here will go away from these meetings without earnest desires of heart that the truths we have had before us may be more to our hearts' affections than they ever have been before.
I have read these three verses because they bring before us in a practical form the hope that we have in Christ-a present relationship and a present hope. Our association with Him, united to Him at the Father's right hand by the power of the Holy Ghost, sets us before the world in the place in which Christ Himself was when here upon earth-in a path of separation and rejection. Conformity to Him is what we seek even now, being even now " the children of God." But when it comes to looking for Him, that which surely every heart longs for, then it is: " It doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is."
And where this hope is real and true-and oh, beloved brethren, the Lord make it more real and true to each one of us every moment-what does it bring with it? " Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." There is the purifying of ourselves, of our ways, of our surroundings, of our lives in holiness; the separating ourselves from every single thing that is unsuitable to Him for whom we wait, and whom we shall he perfectly like in the glory.
The Lord make it the desire of every heart to be more like Him now-to be now " purifying ourselves even as he is pure."
(A. P. G.)